A Saudi-imposed naval embargo of Yemen, which is the Arab world’s poorest nation, has also led to a famine across much of the country.

On Friday, the United Nations (UN) aid agencies said that around 1.5 million children in Yemen were malnourished and half of the population, that is more than 13 million people, lived in hunger.

Three days earlier, harrowing pictures had emerged of an 18-year-old Yemeni woman lying in bed at a hospital on the outskirts of the Yemeni port city of al-Hudaidah with severe malnutrition.

The Middle East Eye news portal reported on Thursday that Saudi Arabian and Qatari army chiefs had met with their Algerian counterpart earlier in the month, asking Algiers to send its servicemen to Yemen. Riyadh had previously tried and failed to recruit Pakistan and Lebanon in the offensive.

Some observers say the war has cost Saudi Arabia so much in terms of financial and political capital that it seeks to diminish its own role while enlisting the services of allies to gradually fill in its shoes.

Riyadh has already been hit by a worsening economic crisis due to a sharp fall in oil prices, itself a result of the policies of the Saudi regime.